


The Offering

by Cup_aTea



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Dark Magic, M/M, Mandatory Fun Day, Monsters, No Sexual Content, SO, Virgin Sacrifice, dub con
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-18
Updated: 2019-10-18
Packaged: 2020-12-22 16:31:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21079880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cup_aTea/pseuds/Cup_aTea
Summary: Bucky’s village made a bargain fifty years ago, long before he was born.  To hold back a darkness that threatened to destroy their village and then the entire world, they made a promise.  That in fifty years' time they would offer up a virgin to appease the dark creature and save themselves.Time’s up.





	The Offering

**Author's Note:**

> For [this](https://mandatoryfunday.tumblr.com/post/188339825319/okay-fandom-its-spoopy-season-we-have-a#notes) Mandatory Fun Day prompt: candles

Bucky stood before the altar. It was the only part of the shrine floor that was clear of candles. The elders had filled in the candles as they left, leaving Bucky no place to go, and their flames cast flickering shadows on the wall. The gruesome face of the gargoyle statue perched on the altar grinned down at him and made Bucky shiver. He held the thin white robes they had dressed him in as close as possible to keep them from catching in the candle flames. He didn’t know how long he would have to wait. The elders had just said he would know when it was time.

The sudden rush of wind outside made Bucky startle. Shutters on the shrine rattled and trees rustled like they were being tossed by a gale. Then there was a sharp crack of thunder that made Bucky flinch, followed by a long loud peal of thunder. When Bucky looked up, there was a man standing beside the altar.

Bucky called him a man because his mind could not fathom what else the creature could be. Great curved horns like ram’s horns sprouted from his head. His eyes glowed bright blue and there were feathers trailing down his neck that shone bronze and gold in the candlelight. The light of the candles seemed to cast a shadow of wings on the wall behind him, but Bucky couldn’t see what cast them. 

“Hello, little one,” the creature said.

Bucky swallowed, but he couldn’t speak.

“I am C’lin’tn,” the creature said. “What is your name?”

“Bucky,” he whispered.

“I see. Answer my questions, Bucky, and do not lie, for I will know. Have you reached your majority?”

“Yes,” Bucky said.

“Are you a virgin?”

“Yes.”

The creature grinned, not unlike the statue. “Are you prepared to spare your village by offering yourself to me?”

“Yes,” said Bucky, shaky but determined.

“Very good,” the man said and stepped down from the altar.

As he stepped in front of Bucky, a ruckus started outside. It sounded like Sam and Steve pounding on the door and yelling his name, but Bucky couldn’t spare them a thought. All his attention was on the creature in front of him.

“You are very beautiful. I consider myself fortunate.” 

C’lin’tn reached out a hand, the fingers tipped in curved claws and Bucky couldn’t stop himself. He flinched.

C’lin’tn paused.

“Do I upset you? I chose my least monstrous form.”

“I am not…I was not…” Bucky gulped.

“Are you afraid of me, little one?” C’lin’tn said.

Bucky nodded.

“That is not—did your family not tell you what an honor it will be? Did the village not tell you how powerful I am? How powerful I will make you?”

“I am an orphan. There was a group of us and I got the short straw.” The creature was frowning and Bucky hurried to continue. “But I know my duty. I know I must do this to save the village.”

C’lin’tn dropped to his knees and wrapped his arms around Bucky’s waist. He looked up at Bucky, his head level with Bucky’s belly, and the sight made Bucky feel lightheaded and want to curl up in embarrassment at the same time.

“You have a choice, you know,” C’lin’tn said.

“I do?” Bucky said, and it came out in a squeak.

“You can give yourself to me and spare your village. Or you can choose not to and I will devour the world.”

“Why?” Bucky asked.

“It is in my nature,” C’lin’tn said.

“Can’t you stop it?” Bucky said.

“No more than a wolf can stop hunting or a horse can stop running.”

Bucky felt despair well up in his throat.

“I did not say it was a good choice,” C’lin’tn said. “But if you do not give yourself, I promise to end you quickly and painlessly. You’ll go first so you do not have to watch anyone suffer.”

The way he said it, Bucky knew he meant it as a consolation. 

“And if I do?” Bucky asked.

“Then you will be my king and live more lavishly than you can imagine.”

As C’lin’tn spoke, Bucky felt his hot breath through his robes and curling around his stomach. An image sprang up in his mind of himself in beautiful clothes standing beside his monstrous husband.

“I think this land already has a king,” Bucky said, feeling less timid.

“Not when I’m through with it,” C’lin’tn said, his teeth glinting in a sharp grin.

“But you said—”

“I said I would not devour the entire world. I never said anything about a part of it. The village heard my terms fifty years ago, but they were not careful with their end of the bargain.”

Bucky saw another image in his mind of villagers cowering from a dark voice that came from the shadows, and a darkness that felled cattle and ruined crops. One virgin must have seemed a simple price.

“Besides,” C’lin’tn said, “isn’t there anyone you’ve wished suffering on?”

Bucky didn’t say anything, not wanting to lie. Life for orphans in his village had been hard, especially the ones his age. The elders had feared what would happen if there were no virgins when the fifty years were up, and they had been harsh.

“And my friends?” Bucky asked.

“Your friends will be treated like princes and princesses, little one. I will only have the best for my beloved.”

The word put a thrill through Bucky. C’lin’tn’s glowing eyes seemed sincere, and the longer Bucky stared into them, the more he wanted to know what that would be like. To be someone’s beloved.

“All right,” he said.

“All right, what?” C’lin’tn asked.

Bucky put his hands on C’lin’tn’s shoulders.

“I offer myself to you,” he said.

C’lin’tn’s grin was full of teeth.


End file.
